Luckily, there are 'many roads to Rome' when it comes to teaching kids about technology and helping them acquire tech knowledge and skills. This was the theme of the recent panel at the Women in Tech Regatta Amsterdam virtual event on Wednesday, December 9th: 'The Many Flavours of Technology Education (and School is Only One of Them!)'. Watch the panel here. Deborah Carter, NewTechKids' Founder and Managing Director, developed and moderated the panel and brought
Read moreprogramming
Preparation is Power! Especially for parents and caregivers, teachers and school guidance counselors helping guide kids in their study and career paths. NewTechKids is pleased to announce that we are supporting PreparationTech, a new online video platform which explores how technology is transforming study, training and work in every industry, field and discipline. (Deborah Carter, our founder, is the Managing Director of this non-profit foundation.) It showcases the personal stories of a diverse and inclusive group
Read moreNewTechKids will offer two 2020 Christmas holiday bootcamps from December 21 - 31, 2020. Before Christmas Bootcamp: December 21-24, 2020 Bootcamp between Christmas and New Year's: December 28 - 31, 2020 Part of the City of Amsterdam's Mid-Winter Mokum event series, these two bootcamps are subsidized by Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam (OBA) and are being offered free-of-charge to all children who have an OBA Junior library pass. For kids who don't have the pass, the fee
Read moreWhile some formal education is an important aspect of preparing for future careers, it’s not the path for everyone. Many people working in the tech industry and creating/producing/making with tech tools are self-taught, relying on books, online resources, YouTube tutorial, free software, coding forums, and hands-on experience. Shaquille Veldboom, a young black man who grew up in Amsterdam Southeast, a low-income, predominantly black community, was the recent subject of a PreparationTech interview. At the age
Read moreHow do you prepare kids and adults for our world of constant and rapid technological innovation? What education, training and exposure to technology do they need to survive and thrive? Deborah Carter, NewTechKids' Founder, will be moderating a panel discussion on this topic during the Women in Tech Regatta Amsterdam virtual event on December 9, 2020. The panel will explore the many different ways that kids can learn about technology, from formal schooling to storytelling,
Read moreAnother great resource for teaching technology literacy to children is the 'Zerus and Ona: Adventures in the Binary World' book series developed by Miriam Tocino. Miriam is a software developer, coding teacher, illustrator and author based in Amsterdam. The inspiration for her book series came three years ago when she had her son and started thinking about how to introduce him to the world of computers. She uses characters called Zerus and Ona which are based on binary 0s and
Read moreParents, teachers, school counsellors: technologists don't need computer science degrees. They can be self-taught. Some programmers, data scientists, AI and machine learning experts, especially those who don't have access to formal college and university programs, have taught themselves using free online resources, online courses and project-based learning. In this PreparationTech interview, Deborah Carter, NewTechKids' Founder and MD, interviews Babusi Nyoni, an African design strategist and innovator who is entirely self-taught. After graduating from high school
Read moreThe COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a massive shift to online learning. The NewTechKids team is joining the wave of educators who are developing new and dynamic ways to teach children online about technological innovation, computer science, programming and robotics. This summer, we'll be offering four, Zoom-based robotics courses for kids ages 8-12 under the theme "Tech Inventors to the Rescue". Kids from different countries with little to no previous experience in building and coding will
Read moreBeing able to think deeply and critically about technology and its implications is becoming as important as understanding computer science and knowing how to code. This is because the technology we currently have is directly related to the perspectives, values and even biases of the technologists who create it. To help kids develop critical thinking skills, NewTechKids is developing new lessons and teaching resources which help primary school-aged kids explore the ethics of technology. Our
Read moreDo you know a kid who is crazy about the giant animated robots at theme parks? Or who is fascinated by cyborgs and human-like robots? Studying robotics can lead to a career in many areas, including but not limited to animatronics, engineering, design, game design, medicine and education. Sculpture, animation, cognitive science, material science, computer science, AI and programming are just some of the fields which intersect with robotics. David Hanson, CEO of Hanson Robotics,
Read more